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Conditions for Developing the National Program for Parent Education in Romania
Daniela COJOCARU , Stefan COJOCARU, Oana Mariana CIUCHI
Revista de cercetare [i interven]ie social\, 2011, vol. 34, pp. 144-158 The online version of this article can be found at: www.rcis.ro and www.scopus.com
Published by: Lumen Publishing House On behalf of: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Department of Sociology and Social Work and Holt Romania Foundation REVISTA DE CERCETARE SI INTERVENTIE SOCIALA is indexed by ISI Thomson Reuters - Social Sciences Citation Index (Sociology and Social Work Domains)
Conditions for Developing the National Program for Parent Education in Romania
Daniela COJOCARU1 , Stefan COJOCARU2, Oana Mariana CIUCHI3
Abstract
The initiative of developing a nation-wide strategy for parenting education in Romania belongs to the Holt Romania organisation, one of the national providers of such programmes, as well as to UNICEF, which in the past ten years has constantly supported and encouraged the establishment of pilot programmes in this domain. Moreover, the national authorities, directly or through intermediate structures, have repeatedly declared their interest in developing a national strategy for applying parenting education as a form of support and consolidation of the services designed for the prevention of child abuse, neglect and exploitation, of school abandonment etc., and for the promotion of childrens rights. In these circumstances, our study analyses the main four national parenting education programmes carried out in Romania by various non-governmental organisations and their features in terms of contents/curriculum, form of organisation, methods used, and categories of participants. Our research highlights the need to build a national integrated and coherent system of parental education for parents in Romania. This requires the development of professional standards, developing a methodology for training, certification and parental supervision of educators and public financial resources for developing long-term parenting education Keywords: parenting education; professionalisation of parenting; parental support; participation; training; vulnerable families.
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Department of Sociology and Social Work, PhD, lecturer, Iasi, Blv. Carol I, no. 11, ROMANIA, 700506, Phone: 0040.745375125; e-mail: dananacu@gmail.com Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Department of Sociology and Social Work, PhD, Associate Professor, Iasi, Blv. Carol I, no. 11, ROMANIA, 700506, Phone: 0040.744788779; e-mail: contact@stefancojocaru.ro Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, Counsellor, Str. General Berthelot, nr. 28-30, sectorul 1, Bucuresti, ROMANIA. Lecturer, Petre Andrei University from Iasi. Phone: 0040.723483724, email:oanapsih@yahoo.com
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present in the discourse of professionals, who idealise the traditional family and consider it the prefect form of organisation (Cojocaru & Cojocaru, 2011). We must underline here that we adhere to the theoretical approach according to which the traditional family does not exist per se, as an objective reality, being instead a cultural product, a social construct of the traditional rhetoric and imagery concerning families, a constellation of ideas (Gubrium and Holstein, 1990). Therefore, both parenting and childhood are social constructs featuring a number of characteristics that become more prominent in different manners according to context. Jones (2001) suggests that the sphere of parenting competence should also include the activities and behaviours pertaining to the sphere of primary care, carried out with the purpose of giving children autonomy. A number of recent British works (Reder et al., 2003: 3) consider that the purpose of parenting activities is to facilitate the childs optimal development in a safe environment, these activities having several dimensions: a) a caring dimension, b) a control dimension, c) a development dimension, and d) an advocacy dimension, and in order to achieve this purpose parents require a number of resources such as: knowledge (concerning the childs needs and the ways in which they can be met, concerning ways of developing a childs potential etc.), motivation to invest time, energy, material and non-material resources and opportunities. In order to analyse the quality of care, we believe it is useful to carry out an analysis of parenting responsibilities, the manner in which they are constructed and assumed by family members. Alvy (quoted by Small and Eastman, 1991: 455-462) proposes four functions and responsibilities related to parenting: a) providing for the childrens basic needs (providing resources and looking after the domestic environment); b) protecting the children; c) supporting the childrens physical and mental development, and d) representing the childrens interests in the community. Starting from the classification of parenting responsibilities made by Alvy, Small and Eastman (1991: 455-462) analyse these functions and the variables that contribute to the outlining of parenting responsibilities.
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al., 2011). The delivery of parent education programmes for parents with limited resources continues to be a challenge for providers, despite the fact that the presentation of parenting practices using exercises that conflict with the parents values remains unsolved (Goddard, Myers-Walls, Lee, 2004). The recent import of parent education programmes, of models that have been tested in other cultures has not gone beyond the stage of acclimatisation to the social and cultural circumstances of the various categories of parents; additional efforts and resources are needed in order to adapt them to the Romanian reality, to the specificities of the various categories of population, to local and family cultures (Sandu & Ciuchi, 2010). Local programmes, developed at the initiative of various organisations, without being based on a tested and structured model, do not go far enough in adapting to the parents specific needs. Such programmes rely on a poor theoretical foundation, oftentimes filled with contradictions, incoherent and lacking substance, merely providing recipes and ready-made solutions to the parents problems.
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(2008), Save the Children (2008). There may be several organisations providing parent education programmes, but their activity is insufficiently well known at local level. In order to classify certain aspects regarding the contents delivered by these parent education programmes, the forms under which they are organised, the perspectives in approaching parenting, the course curricula of four such nationwide programmes were analysed.
information, or the punctual meetings focussing on certain topics, such as disciplining children, etc.).
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parent education programmes, the effects of the programmes are maintained for a longer term.
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mainly on vulnerable and disadvantaged families that do have neither access to such services, nor the skills of using them.
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Professional background
The analysis of parent education programmes draws attention to the emergent and eclectic character of parent education, on the one hand, and to the diversity of the original training of the professionals delivering parent education programmes. The analysis of these programmes shows several directions in parent education: a) there are parent education programmes aimed at the school and pre-school environment, programmes aimed at parents of children enrolled in the education system, and in this case the parent educators are qualified teachers; most of these programmes take place inside schools and kindergartens; b) programmes aimed at young children (up to three years of age), in which the parent educators are social workers, nurses and physicians, and the parents belong to vulnerable and disadvantaged categories; in this case, the programmes are run as a rule in neutral spaces (town halls or parent&child resource centres) or in medical facilities (maternity hospitals or paediatrics wards); c) programmes aimed at parents of children with disabilities, provided by staff with professions that play an important role in the rehabilitation of these children (psychologists, speech therapists, kinesiotherapists, physicians, psychotherapists etc.). In general it can be said that local parent education programmes have a predominantly psychologising orientation (inspired both by psychological theories and by child development theories), while nationwide programmes tend more to the social aspect (stressing the social aspects of parenting, childhood, family and parenting roles). The prevalence of one or the other of these orientations does not exclude the other, instead it uses it in this eclectic universe of prescriptions aimed at parents. Even though the readings of parenting and childhood are different, each of the analysed programmes highlights certain aspects which it considers, explicitly or implicitly, as having greater importance for parents.
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Cultural diversity
The parent education programmes included in the research are not entirely sensitive to local cultures, being poorly adapted to cultural diversity (only two of the 18 organisations take into account cultural diversity when delivering parent education programmes). Parent education programmes are adapted to features such as childrens age and childrens problems, rather than to the social and cultural traits of the population (Frunz & Frunz, 2009). The parent education programmes in the research are adapted to the local culture of the various groups of clients selected according to the childrens characteristics and the familys social and economic status, but they give little consideration to the cultural differences present in various groups (e.g. families with numerous children, Rroma families, single-parent families). Parent education programmes are not very open in terms of involving parents in designing, managing or delivering the actual programmes, providing instead, as a rule, prescriptions, recipes and readymade solutions for the parents problems.
Conclusions
Despite the parent education providers intention to attract as many parents as possible into such programmes, a number of obstacles have been identified, obstacles pertaining both to the parents themselves and to the level of support coming from the local authorities. The parents willingness to join/absence of motivation. Apart from having difficulties in organising their time (often invoked as an explanation for the parents inability to take part in parent education classes), parents tend to consider
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themselves as being good parents, not needing any specialised classes in order to exercise their parenting. Difficulties in identifying parents with shared characteristics. Service providers oftentimes have difficulties in identifying parents with shared traits. The most often used selection criterion is the childrens age; consequently, due to their focus on areas of expertise, many service providers maintain this criterion when defining and reinforcing the identity of the programme (programmes aimed at parents of infants, of toddlers, of school-age children etc.). Quality and competence of educators. Taking place in a very dynamic universe, parent education programmes are forced to produce refinements of institutional prescriptions and to train professionals that are capable of adequately conveying the contents of the programmes. In the absence of a coherent system of professional training that would develop a common core of competencies for various professionals with different backgrounds, parent education programmes have little visibility and prestige. Absence of support policies on the part of authorities. Parent education has near to no support from the part of central and local authorities. Only small local parent education programmes initiated or supported by the authorities have been identified. Local authorities have not developed mechanisms for supporting their own parent education programmes or for offering financial support to the private providers programmes.
Acknowledgements
This study was carried out as part of the project Center for Childhood and Parenting supported by UNICEF, implemented by Holt Romania Iasi Branch in 2010-2011.
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